Plot Synopsis

This is the second edition of Ice Age to be released in Region 4. A review of the first version can be found here. This version has some major differences but also a lot of similarities. Let me lay out what has changed as a quick guide:

The new version includes the following NEW features when compared to the original release:

DTS Sound (in addition to the original Dolby Digital 5.1)

2 Interactive Games

An alternate way to watch the film called the Extreme Cool View including trivia and 48 featurettes

Bunny - The 1998 Oscar Winning Short by the same director

An extra disc

The new version misses out on the following features which were available on the previous release:

A 3 minute featurette called Sid on Sid

An approximately 15 minute making of divided into 7 sections (although I think most of this material is probably covered by the Extreme Cool View)

So I suppose the question is - to upgrade or not upgrade...well, one thing to keep in mind is that this version is coming out with an RRP of $18.95 which is pretty cheap, especially considering that you should be able to pick it up at a lower price than RRP if you shop around a bit. Despite that, I would say that if you have the previous version you won't gain too much unless you badly want a DTS track. The new extras are pretty good but the original disc had a great set of extras, so how many do you really need? However if, like me, you never picked up the previous version and liked the film, this version is a great choice, especially when considering the price.

The original review linked above contains an excellent overview of the plot, but let me tell you a few things about this film which I really like. First and foremost one of the funniest scenes ever in an animated film has got to be the sequence with the dodos and Sid's touchdown. When I first saw this sequence I nearly hurt myself laughing and despite having now seen it five times in the last two days, it still raises a chuckle. Also, Scrat is a winner - a truly inspired idea which brought a great new character to the film despite not really being part of the story. My two year old son has been asking me to put Scrat on repeatedly since I first played the movie for him. There is obviously much more to enjoy but these are the things which stick in my mind.

So, my advice is upgrade if you badly want DTS and buy this version if you didn't buy the previous one.

Transfer Quality

Video

The video quality is phenomenal.

The feature is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio. I would guess that this disc contains the same transfer as the previous one but unfortunately I have no way to confirm this. For those who are interested the movie takes up 4101 Mb on the disc which works out to an average video bitrate of approximately 6 Mbps which is pretty healthy.

The picture was incredibly clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. The shadow detail was excellent. The detail available in the fur of the main characters is truly incredible.

The colour was excellent and the variation in colour between different hairs on Manny or Sid is quite amazing when you stop to take a look at it.

Shock! Horror! I did notice a minor artefact. There was some white edge enhancement visible, especially around mountains, but I would call this a nitpick rather than a major issue.

There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were very clear and easy to read.

The layer change occurs at 54:11 and is essentially invisible.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness

Shadow Detail

Colour

Grain/Pixelization

Film-To-Video Artefacts

Film Artefacts

Overall

Audio

The audio quality is excellent.

This DVD contains two audio options, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s and an English DTS 6 channel soundtrack encoded at 768 Kb/s. To my mind, the DTS definitely has an edge in dynamics and sounds fantastic. The Dolby Digital 5.1 is great as well. My comments below refer specifically to the DTS track.

Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

The score of this film by David Newman is wonderful adding significantly to the fun and tension of various scenes.

The surround speakers were used constantly, adding a large variety of surround effects and atmosphere.

The subwoofer is much more active on this new DTS track and really adds to the film experience.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue

Audio Sync

Clicks/Pops/Dropouts

Surround Channel Use

Subwoofer

Overall

Extras

I will cover the new extras in detail and just note what else is included. Excellent descriptions for the original extras repeated here can be found in the original review here. New extras are labelled **NEW**.

Menu

The menu includes an intro, motion, music and is generally very well designed, although I did find that on some sub-menus it was virtually impossible to read the option when you had the cursor on it.

Games (Disc 1) **NEW**

2 interactive games are included, which are:

Hide & Eek - Help Scrat find his acorn in one of 8 hiding locations. The acorn is in a different place each time. If you choose incorrectly something nasty happens to Scrat.

Frozen Pairs - A fairly difficult matching game which involves choosing a picture of one of the characters from three options to match exactly to another picture of the same character. The problem is that the pictures were quite small (even on an 80cm TV) and the differences were quite subtle. I think kids would struggle with this. Those with projectors might find it easier.

Extreme Cool View (72:41) (Disc 2) **NEW**

This is quite an interesting extra, and to my knowledge unique. What you get is a 16x9 enhanced screen split into four unequal sections. The four sections contain 1) The film in another widescreen window within the main screen (without credits at the end hence the time difference) 2) A section for text based trivia 'Scrat's fun facts' 3) A 4x3 shaped window which plays small featurettes relevant to the various sections of the film and 4) A picture of Scrat with his acorn. I know this sounds a little confusing but sensibly only one of these sections is really active at a time, although the film continues to play regardless of what else is going on. The audio switches between the movie and the featurettes and the text trivia only comes up when a featurette is not playing. In total there are 48 featurettes included which are also viewable separately. The featurettes include interviews with the director, producer, character designer and staff from the Page Museum which is at the Le Brea tar pits. If you have not heard of the Le Brea Tar Pits they are the largest known deposit of Ice Age fossils and are located in California. Topics covered include characters, film development, sloths, mammoths, sabre-toothed cats, cave painting, tar pits, fossils, early man and animation technicalities. There is lots of interesting information presented.

Bunny - Animated Short (8:55 incl Intro) **NEW**

This is a short film made by the same director which won the Best Animated Short Oscar in 1999. Impressive animation but I found the story a little difficult. The director (in the optional commentary/intro) describes it as being a whimsical film about death. It concerns an old female bunny baking a cake who has trouble with a moth. After she follows the moth into her oven things get a bit weird. Can be played with or without intro and with or without commentary by Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha who provide the feature commentary.

Feature Commentary by Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha - Disc 1

Quite a good commentary featuring the director and co-director. Chris Wedge is very interesting and Carlos Saldanha is a bit stilted and offers more technical comments. Chris nudges him to say something a few times.

Gone Nutty - Scrat's Missing Adventure (4:37) - Disc 1

Some more great Scrat action. Excellent addition.

Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary - Disc 1

Same set as were previously available.

Trailers - Disc 1

Same three trailers as were on the previous version.

Scrat Reveals - Disc 2

Same three short Fox promos featuring Scrat, which were included last time.

Animation Progression

3 multiple angle featurettes showing how the animation develops through various stages. On the previous version.

International Ice Age (2:45)

Multiple language featurette.

Under the Ice

This section is the same as last time except that it does not include the Making of featurettes. It does include the HBO : First Look featurette starring Ray Romano and the other seven featurettes.

Design Galleries / Size Comparison

The same as on the previous version.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view
non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually
also NTSC compatible.

This Extreme Cool Edition has been released in exactly the same format in Region 2, however is not available in Region 1. I will compare the Region 1 version to this new version here.The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

An extra interactive game, Playing Darwin

DVD-Rom Features

Making of featurettes

Sid on Sid

The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

DTS sound

Extreme Cool View

On this basis the Region 4 version of the disc is the winner from my perspective.